The Center of the World
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Alisha Klass, Karry Brown, Molly Parker, Peter Sarsgaard, Shane EdelmanBrand: Lions Gate
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 88 minutes
Published: 2001-12-01
DVD Release Date: 2001-12-18
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Lions Gate
Movie Reviews of The Center of the World
Movie Review: Unfairly Underrated Movie about Sex, Naivete & Self-Delusion
Summary: 5 Stars
Arguably the most thematically serious film I've seen where a stripper was a lead character, director Wayne Wang's "The Center of the World" stars Richard (Peter Sarsgaard) as a software millionaire who offers $10,000 to Florence (Molly Parker - the widow in "Deadwood"), a drummer in a struggling band who makes a living as a stripper) to spend three days with him in Las Vegas, setting the stage for a story about the collision between fantasy and reality: the fantasies upscale prostitutes sell to their clients and the weird mix of naivete, simple lust and a desire for connection that a john might bring to their relations - and the reality that these relations are little more than a transaction of the starkest sort. Even more interesting for me was the balance Wang brings to the narrative: their changing points of view get almost equal time in the story, adding a bit more depth to the film than I expected.
In an interview, director and co-writer Wang (" Thousand Years of Good Prayers, Smoke, Joy Luck Club") makes an interesting comment about how the film had it's genesis in a visit he made to the Silicon Valley area, where, at the time, there was a serious imbalance in the gender ratio of the areas' population, something akin to eight or more single men to every single woman. And with all the ready money in the post dot.com-bust economy of the time, gave rise to a huge market for strippers, call girls and dating services.
The film didn't have the strongest reception from the critics, which I thought was undeserved. Wang and his co-writers, Paul Auster ("Smoke, Lulu on the Bridge") Miranda July ("You Me & Everyone We Know") did a great job getting into the characters heads and the performances of the leads is some of the best work I've seen from either actor. Carla Gugino (the first Silk Spectre in "Watchmen") also has a supporting role as a long time friend of Parker's character.
[...]
Summary of The Center of the World
CENTER OF THE WORLD - DVD MovieThe titular center of the world is a matter of perspective in Wayne Wang's (The Joy Luck Club, Smoke) notorious, explicit drama of emotional isolation and sexual commerce in the modern world. According to rich, apathetic cyber-geek Peter Sarsgaard (Boys Don't Cry), it's his home computer. Amateur rock & roll drummer and part-time stripper Molly Parker (Wonderland) deems it an erotic part of the female anatomy. Their "date" is merely a sexual contract that takes them to Las Vegas, a place as phony and impersonal as their so-called romance. "You know it's just an act, right?" she reminds him between her slinky bump-and-grind striptease shows and their sweaty sexual gymnastics.
The Internet makes a great metaphor for modern social alienation, with its impersonal communication and virtual sex, but there's not much else new in this familiar story other than the erotic content. Shot on dimly lit, high-definition video, the gray, washed palette sucks the glamour and titillation right out of the spectacle, turning it into an empty, soulless exercise in physical sensation and self delusion--appropriate to this story of lonely souls unable to break through their own isolation. --Sean Axmaker
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